Speech #920072467

But it seems to me that the main issue which was wrapped around the credibility of Father Menger and Reverend Roffe is whether or not there were Pathet Lao in the villages. Now. the surveythe famous USIS survey upon which Mr. MCCLOSKEY places so much emphasis .and relies upon so heavily says that 95 percent of those who lived there and were refugees did not go back when the war ended if it were occupied by the Communists. More than 50 percent gave a variety of reasons for their becoming refugees which included the protest against the 15percent rice tax imposed by the North Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao and the fact that they were forced to become military porters and were treated as slaves and cattle. The other thingI think it is clearly established. regardless of what the testimony may have been when Father Menger and Reverend Roffe were translating for you is that the Pathet Lao had occupied those villages. Perhaps. at the moment they were not there. but we all know that every dry season the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese alternately occupy this region and that during every wet season the Meo tribesmen come back.